Sniper!
by Belisarius1
Summary: A killer is on the loose and Brad os on his trail.
1. Default Chapter

The desert sun glinted off the hover cargo as it made its way through great expanse of sand kicking up a trail of sand and burying a hapless snake. Inside the hover cargo things were strangely peaceful, Bit hadn't stolen any of Leena's food and Brad hadnt been given any reason to complain about not getting enough money. Jamie took the period of peace as a chance to draw up some new strategies that would probably be ignored by Bit, Brad and Leena in the next battle. The peace was broken by Doc Toros. "AHHHHHHH" Jamie jumped out of his seat and Brad came running from the next room "Whats happening are we under attack" blurted Brad "No" replied Jamie "Doc just dropped one of his models". Sure enough Toros was scrambling round on the floor picking up pieces of a Redler while trying to hold back tears. When he got back up he realised the hover cargo had stopped. Brad and Jamie were staring at four wrecked Gyzaks. "What happened here?" asked Jamie to no one in particular "Probably just a zoid battle, nothing to worry about, right Doc?" asked Brad Toros remained silent and stared at the wrecked zoids, thoughts ran through his mind that he didnt want to seriously contemplate. "RIGHT DOC" repeated Brad "Er.. no, nothing, Jamie go get some lunch" the order was hurriedly tacked on the end and Jamie wascertain Doc sounded a little jumpy, but was to hungry to check. Brad turned to leave.  
  
"Brad you stay" "What I do now?" Ignoring Brads guilty conscience Toros told him to sit, and sit he did "I saw something and had to get Jamie out before bringing it up" Toros tapped a key enlarging the picture of the Gyzaks to cover the main screen. "look at them carefully, what do you see?" Brad scrutinised the picture and after a minute or so he gave his reply. "They haven't taken much damage, looks like they were sniped, so what" Brad got a hopeful glint one of his eyes but only careful examination would have revealed which one "It could mean Naomi is nearby" "That was my immediate reaction too, then I saw this" Doc pressed another series of keys and enlarged the third Gyzak "I don't believe it," stuttered Brad "Who would do a thing like that?" The Gyzak's; head, cockpit and pilot had been blown clean away. 


	2. Murder

Brad's disbelief shone like a beacon from his normally unmoving face, this was murder, could this be the Backdraft Groups doing, it was definitely the sort of thing they would get up to, after all, they had almost killed Bit on a number of occasions for the sake of taking the Liger Zero or for their own twisted entertainment. "Brad, I want you to go out in the Shadow fox and take a closer look, see if there's anything we've missed" "Right Doc"  
  
15 minutes later the Shadow Fox was bounding towards the wrecked zoids. Brad was, understandably, apprehensive, if those zoids had been sniped they probably never knew what hit them, he flipped a switch and increased radar sensitivity, and just to be sure, activated the infra-red to spot any stealth units. When he reached the wrecks he bought the Shadow Fox to its knees and got out, two of the zoids had lost their heads and nothing could be done about it but something else caught his eye on the other two, they didnt seem to have any battle damage, not a scratch or even blackened armour plate. He walked around the first zoid and found the problem, in the Gyzaks bright orange cockpit was a small hole. Brad climbed up one of the claws imbedded in the ground and using the butt of his rifle as a club, smashed in the canopy to peer inside. What he saw almost made him throw up, there was a young boy about the age of 17, his hands were still gripping the controls and his golden hair was matted with blood from a hole in his head. He took the boys registration card so he could let the commission inform the family, he then prepared for the grisly prospect of doing it all over again to the second Gyzak.  
  
When Brad returned he spoke to no one other than Toros, if any one else even tried to speak to him he gave them the cold shoulder, but they all attributed it to Brad being Brad. He became even more reclusive than usual after reporting the death of the two young pilots to the commission and could only be found at mealtimes or at Doc Toros summons. The two pilots had never even see their foe, this is what made him sure the Backdraft were not responsible, they fought battles without rules and the odds heavily stacked in their favour but they enjoyed the fanfare of making themselves known.  
  
The Steel Warrior team made their way through the Adrienne mountain pass aboard a Gustav transport, two Iron Kongs and a two Dark Horns made a formidable combination and was part of the reason the team had made it to class A, with a mix of good strategy, strict training and a steady flow of cash from their sponsors they had created a well deserved reputation as a team. None of this meant diddly squat to the man up on the cliff staring down on the Gustav's slow progress, to him they were just four more victims, he was going to enjoy this. 


	3. The hunt begins

Two days later the hover cargo found the remains of the convoy, this time Doc decided to tell Bit and Jamie who both responded with the same amount of disbelief and horror as Brad when they collected the registration cards from the deceased warriors, they managed to keep it a secret from Leena saying that it was just one of Bit's scavenging trips. Only Bit dared to ask the question everybody wanted answered.  
  
"Doc why haven't you told Leena yet?" Toros turned and looked at Bit and looked ready to hit something, but calmed down and answered "She has her mothers sense of justice, if she knew the Gunsniper would be outta here in a flash trying to catch this killer, but you know how Leena is, she doesnt have the patience or concentration to do it..." he paused and choked back a tear "to do it without getting killed". Bit realised it was the awful truth, if she knew, she was as good as dead.  
  
"Doc, said Bit, my sense of Justice is a good as Leenas if not better, set up Jager for me, Im going hunting" the door swished open and Brad stepped in "Im going with him" The Shadow Fox and Jager stalked through the mountain passes searching for their prey for two weeks they found nothing other than another wrecked team, this time of aerial zoids who had been taken out using missiles, they found the bodies of the pilots, all shot in the back while trying to escape, now they knew what they had dreaded, the man they were hunting was killing for sport.  
  
The man watched them, he had been aware of them for a few days now and knew they were after him, he contemplated how he would kill them and were he would leave their bodies to be found by their idiotic companions, "insects" he said He flipped up the scope on his penetrator rifle, he took careful aim at Brad and slowly started to squeeze the trigger a rock crumbled beneath him and the shot went off kicking up the dirt infront of the Shadow Fox. Brad stopped his zoid and took an instinctive leap backwards as a flurry of un-aimed bullets made a trail in the soft rocks of the canyon floor, Bit threw the Liger behind a rock spire to protect himself from the lethal shards of crystal fired by the sniper's rifle. The barrage stopped momentarily and both Brad's and Bit's radios crackled into life.  
  
"I am impressed," said a voice dripping with cruelty and cunning "your the first to avoid my bullets andthe first stupid enough to try track me down" 


	4. The agonizer

"Where are you?" demanded Bit of the voice, "Come out and fight, I swear im gonna take you down and the authorities are gonna make you pay" Brad remained silent  
  
The voice laughed then spoke again "I fight on my terms in places of my choosing, for I am Panther" This time it was Bit who laughed "Panther? You sound like a villan from a cheesy film!" This last comment seemed to silence the radio but, it wasn't to be "Like the panther I strike from the shadows, I strike with precision and..." the intervening silence stretched the tension to breaking point "I strike to kill" Panther rounded off his speech with the stereotypical manical laughter and underscored his point by firing an agonizer shard at Bit.  
  
The agonizer shard was even more illegal than the Penetrator rifle used to fire it, the agonizer was pointed like a normal shard but also spiked like a porcupine, anyone attempting to remove the shard without the proper equipment would rip away the flesh surrounding the victims wound killing them in moments, and this specially crafted piece of cruelty was augmented with a slow acting poison that would cause a victim to suffer extreme pain for the longest amount of time possible before finally dying.  
  
The shard hit Bit squarely on his right shoulder causing him to wrench his hands off the controls of the Liger and scream in pain , with the loss of the pilot's control the Liger keeled over. 


	5. Echoes of the past

Brad had seen the muzzle flash and heard the scream of pain a his normally cool calculated skill warrior persona was pushed away by feelings of pure unadulterated rage and bloodlust, the Shadow Fox sped forward towards Panthers postion firing madly as it went when he reached the positon he used his strike laser claw and smashed the rocks into shards only to find that Panther was gone, he looked up, he looked left, he looked right but Panther was definitely not there.  
  
"Looking for me?" A heavily modified Sabre Tiger painted a jet black raised itself over a crevice and roared "This is Orion" said Panther "I hope you like him, my zoid has the sniping capabilities of a Gunsniper with the combat abilities of a Shield Liger and a few extra weapons I added myself" Panther fired a shell but Brad had moved and deployed his smoke screen, Panther fired blindly into the smoke with his shock cannons, his fire was replied to by a hail of laser bolts from an unscathed Shadow Fox, both the left legs were blown clean off the Sabre Tiger causing it to crash to the ground.  
  
Brad leaped over to the fallen Sabre Tiger and fired into its unarmoured belly before dismounting, he walked over to the fallen zoids cockpit and smashed it in, Panther was trying to get out of his seat but the belt was stuck and he was bleeding badly "help me" pleaded the fallen killer, Brad raised his rifle, what colour remained in Panther's face drained away "you wouldn't ....." "Try me" replied Brad, clicking off the rifles safety "If you kill me, your no better than I am" It was a surprisingly deep sentiment from a merciless killer and Brad lowered the rifle, then images of the fallen warriors he had seen, the boy in the Gyzak, the Steel Warriors and a multitude of others flashed into his head like a searing flame "I will never be like you" and with that Brad raised the rifle and fired, he kept firing until the clip was empty. Brad turned to leave then stopped, he then reached for his belt and took a fresh clip and inserted it into the rifle, he faced the cockpit and emptied it into panthers body, with people that cruel, you just had to be sure. 


End file.
